Perhaps the most intriguing athlete in Muskegon-area history was back in the news recently.

Chris Taylor, a huge kid from Dowagiac who won a heavyweight wrestling national championship at Muskegon Community College in 1969, was chosen for induction into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Okla., in June.

Known as "Gentle Ben," Taylor led MCC to the junior college wrestling national championship in 1970 and went on to become an international mat legend who still has something of a cult following today — 32 years after his death in 1979 at the age of 29.

Chris Taylor

Taylor was Muskegon's answer to Andre "The Giant" Roussimoff during his two years here; which were, incidently, the best two years in the history of the Jayhawks' wrestling program.

He stood 6-foot-5 and weighed well over 400 pounds, competing before there was a weight limit for college heavyweights, and dwarfed all of his teammates in the 1970 national championship team picture which is still on display at MCC's Bartels-Rode Gymnasium.

Turns out Taylor was just getting started at MCC, where he met the woman who would become his wife, Lynn Hart.

He became a national icon at powerful Iowa State, compiling an 87-0 record in two seasons with two Division I heavyweight national championships. Everywhere that Taylor wrestled, huge crowds came out to marvel at the giant's ability to move around the ring, takedown and throw opponents.

Taylor then won a bronze medal at the 1972 Summer Olympic Games in Munich, West Germany, where his only loss was a controversial decision against seven-time Russian world champion Alexander Medved.

Taylor was a natural fit in the crazy world of professional wrestling, where his signature move was the "Bear Hug" and where he wrestled against the likes of Ric Flair

Sadly, his tremendous size — which reached as big as 500 pounds — and the pro wrestling lifestyle led to a series of health problems. Hepatitis and phlebitis forced him to retire in 1977 and he died at his home in Story City, Iowa, two years later.

Taylor is a colorful and, literally, HUGE part of the ongoing Muskegon Community College wrestling story.

It's nice to see the big guy honored and remembered after all these years.